Eliminating energy 'vampires,' composting waste and monitoring all play roles

Geneva Boyer ’14 opens the door ofherHassenfeldresidence hall and points out a fewof thethings that landed her a Green Room Certification -- the compact fluorescent light bulbs,thesmartpower strip, the reusable water bottles.She is one of450students on campusso far tohave pledged to reducetheir impact on the environment. A round sticker on her door shows everyone who passes by thatBoyeris committed to living a sustainable life.

As interest insustainabilitysoars on campus,additional resources are emerging, including Thinking Green,the first environmental floor, and a newBuilding Dashboardthat shows the university’s electricity use in real time.

Plantsare perchedallaround her small single room.Connecting with nature,Boylansays, isanimportant wayfor herto stay connected to the environment.

Reusable shopping bags sit on the shelves and a recycling bin collectsoldpaper that could otherwisewindup in a landfill.Compact fluorescent bulbs shed light on herdesk, whichisarranged near the window to take advantage ofthe sun.

Toearn a green certification, simply log on to theGreen Roomand choose 15ofthe 25listedsustainability-oriented actions that youeithercurrently engage in orthat youpledge to take over the course of the year.They range from using cold-water settings for laundry, which eliminates heating,to opting for reusable coffee mugs.

​Greenhousing

TheThinking Greenfloor, located inDeroy, this year became part of the Common Cause Community, which brings together new studentswho share a similar interest. It is comprisedof21freshmanand one CAwith afocus onenvironmentalism.

“It’s really easy to be environmentally friendly so I thought that there’s no reason not to do it,” says MayaHimelfarb’15.“Anything that you do helps, and I reallywanted to make a difference.”Himelfarbrecycles, watches her meat intake, uses a hand towel instead of paper towels and takes shorter showers.

“I became interested in sustainability after taking environmental chemistry in high school,” saysHimelfarg. “Most of my friends are on this floor. It’s a lot of fun.”

Every week the floor comes togetherfor a group activity, such asplanting vegetable container gardens and maintaining the floor’s worm-composting bins.They will also be participating in the Charles River cleanup, pickingup trash andremoving invasive plants.

LilianMedford ’14 is a second year Eco-Rep and the CA for Thinking Green.TheCalifornianative grew upamong giant redwoods near the ocean.

“Nature is very much a part of the society that Icome from, purposefully thinking about howcurrent actions will affectfuture generations," she says. "Coming to Brandeis last year was a little bit of culture shock and I’m happy to be an Eco-Rep and help inspire more sustainable-minded things on campus.”

The idea for such a floor originated with Cecelia Watkins ’11 and Emma Green ’13, recipients of Brandeis Sustainability Fund support for their initiative to increase campus-wide composting. The Department of Community Living became involved and the floor was created.

Boyersaysshe feels that although Brandeis is a pretty environmentally friendly campus, people don’t always understand the magnitude of the environmental problems.

Now the Eco-Reps andother environmental groups on campushave theBuildingDashboardto help educate the university community about how much energy is being used on campus.It was unveiledearlier this month in the Shapiro Campus Center.

“A number of schools have building dashboards and they found that it really reduces energy use per person,” says Janna Cohen-Rosenthal ’03, Brandeis' Sustainability Coordinator.

The dashboard, which had a $26,000 up-front cost tocoversoftware engineering, currentlymonitorselectricityuse insix locations:Massellquad, which has four buildings and houses first-years; the Village, which houses juniors, seniors and the mid-year class that enters in Januaryand the ShapiroCampus center.There will be additional charges if the system is expanded to monitor additional buildings.

TheBuilding Dashboardcanbe accessed from personal computers. Once logged on viewers can choose to make sustainablecommitments, thenpost themto theirFacebookpages to spread the word.

The Dashboard is a result of a project application submitted to theBrandeis Sustainability Fundlast year by Sam Porter’14,who felt that having smart meterswouldreduce energy usethrough education.He located the technology at LucidDesigns.

LeanneOrtbals’11is an Eco-Rep working to engage students in the new dashboard.She says that since coming to Brandeisshe has become passionate about sustainability.

“I became a vegan and begancomposting at my family’s home in St. Louis, Missouri,” saysOrtbals. Shealsospentasummer interning withEcoSet,a Los Angeles basedcompany that works with film productioncrewsto make them more eco-friendly.

“Now that the system is in place we’re going to monitor it to see if itmakes financial sense to inv​est in more buildings,” says Cohen-Rosenthal.“It will be funand interesting to see the difference between the energy use of a typical residence hall, apartment style living and a campus center. For the next phaseI’d love to throw in more buildings like a science center and academic areas.”